Nigel Worthington will hope to harness Windsor Park's boisterous atmosphere to continue Northern Ireland's recent proud competitive home record in tomorrow's World Cup qualifier against Slovakia – a match which is the country's biggest for nearly a quarter of a century. They stand a potential two games away from qualifying for the World Cup finals for the first time since Mexico in 1986 – a tournament in which Worthington played – having also made the finals in 1958 and 1982.

After Saturday's 1-1 draw in Poland when Northern Ireland conceded the equaliser in the 80th minute – they return to Belfast's 13,500-capacity ground, where they are unbeaten in their past nine competitive games, three of that run coming under Lawrie Sanchez.

Yet as Slovakia head Group Three by two points from Northern Ireland, having played a match fewer, Worthington said that winning all three points was "crucial". Beyond avenging the 2-1 defeat in Bratislava to Vladimir Weiss's side last September, victory would give Northern Ireland a one-point lead before Slovakia meet Slovenia on 10 October. A draw there would probably leave the Slovaks ahead on goal difference, before the final matches are played four days later.

Worthington, however, is focusing only on the next game as he strives to manage expectation. He is, nonetheless, intent on maintaining the home record. "I would like to keep that going," said Worthington. "We had a disappointing result in Slovakia so we owe them one. What we need is a very passionate crowd at Windsor Park once again. It is something very special for the home side – for the away side it can be very intimidating and hostile. That's what we're looking for. The crowd will be up for it. They will drive us on. You can go to some clubs in England, there might be 60,000 and you hear people say there is not enough noise. We have 13,500 and it is worth 80,000."

Worthington confirmed the absence through injury of Saturday's scorer Kyle Lafferty and that Leicester City's Billy Kee, who is on loan at Accrington Stanley, has been promoted from the Under-21s. Worthington, who is also without the striker Warren Feeney, sees only the positive of opportunity for those replacing those absent through injury.

"It's time for someone to grab the headlines and be the hero. We could set the whole of Northern Ireland alight with a great result," he said. Victory would certainly hearten the team and country ahead of the trip to the Czech Republic for the final group match. And, further banish the dark days under Sammy McIlroy when Northern Ireland went 1,298 long minutes without scoring.

Aaron Hughes, the captain, has unwanted memories of that period and the banter he had to endure on returning to club football. "I didn't like going back and taking stick and people would ask if we'd won, knowing. "There were times when it was hard but we've just earned a bit of respect from the results we've had."